Too much miscellany, not enough time.

April 07, 2009

Piroshki Lady, Plummer Park

I hope I'm not ruining a good thing by posting this info, so I'll keep it simple.

If you happen to be hungry and at Plummer Park in West Hollywood, look out for the old Russian lady with the bubushka, heavy clothing and world-weary posture to match, and a sweet smile pushing a beat up shopping cart. She's usually around mid-day. Choose between peppery potato or sweet cheese pierogi, or rather, piroshki.Give her a dollar for each one (which BTW is not called a piroshki in the singular form.) She hands you the warm filled dough in a paper towel, and hangs out with her cart holding the keep-warm steamers and Ralphs bags until the parents and kids at the playground and chess players exhaust her supply.

Her product isn't the softer, dense semicircular, round or mezzaluna shaped dumpling we often associate with Eastern European pierogi, but are single servings formed like a long potato or a mini football. (As a [mostly] Russian/former Soviet-descended Jew, I feel guilty for not knowing more about this food genre.) The outside crust is rather firm, and either baked or fried -- the former, I hope -- to a perfect golden brown.The filling has some room to breathe inside all that expanded dough.